Dorothy Lawson

Dorothy Lawson is a Canadian cellist and composer based in New York City.[1][2] She is best known as a co-founder and artistic director of the string quartet ETHEL.[3][4] On the founding of ETHEL she says, "we... realized that we were in the middle of a really powerful new upsurge of creative energy in music of our time that we were kind of the perfect vehicle for."[5]

Prior to ETHEL, Lawson toured with Mikhail Baryshnikov's White Oak Dance Project, Bang on a Can All-Stars and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. She was a founding member of the Rossetti and Roerich String Quartets, and served 10 years as faculty of Joseph Fuchs' Alfred University Summer Chamber Music Institute.[6][7][8] Lawson was an orchestra member of the 2002 Off-Broadway production of Jason Robert Brown's The Last Five Years and the 2005 Broadway production of The Woman in White.[9][10] She has been a member of the Ron Carter Nonet.[11] Lawson appears on multiple recordings, including the GRAMMY Award-winning album Dedicated to You: Kurt Elling Sings the Music of Coltrane and Hartman[12][13] She is a member of acclaimed Brazilian jazz pianist Marcelo Zarvos +Group.[14][15] Lawson is a graduate of the Juilliard School and a current faculty at the Preparatory Division of Mannes College at the New School.[16] She is quoted numerous times in the book How to Grow as a Musician: What All Musicians Must Know to Succeed by Sheila E. Anderson on the topic of how to balance work and family as a working musician.[17]